A note in a collection of the works of the poet, Allan Ramsay, explains, "Auld Reeky...A name the country people give Edinburgh, from the cloud of smoke or reek that is always impending over it.

Their influence continued for the next three centuries until around 950, when, during the reign of Indulf, son of Constantine II, the "burh" (fortress), named in the 10th-century Pictish Chronicle as oppidum Eden,[42] was abandoned to the Scots.

[44] The first documentary evidence of the medieval burgh is a royal charter, c. 1124–1127, by King David I granting a toft in burgo meo de Edenesburg to the Priory of Dunfermline.

[56] In 1638, King Charles I's attempt to introduce Anglican church forms in Scotland encountered stiff Presbyterian opposition culminating in the conflicts of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

[72] In the second half of the century, the city was at the heart of the Scottish Enlightenment,[73] when thinkers like David Hume, Adam Smith, James Hutton and Joseph Black were familiar figures in its streets.

[82] More improvements followed in the early 20th century as a result of the work of Patrick Geddes,[83] but relative economic stagnation during the two world wars and beyond saw the Old Town deteriorate further before major slum clearance in the 1960s and 1970s began to reverse the process.

[95] Occupying a narrow gap between the Firth of Forth to the north and the Pentland Hills and their outrunners to the south, the city sprawls over a landscape which is the product of early volcanic activity and later periods of intensive glaciation.

[96]: 64–65  Similarly, Arthur's Seat is the remains of a volcano dating from the Carboniferous period, which was eroded by a glacier moving west to east during the ice age.

[96]: 64–65  Erosive action such as plucking and abrasion exposed the rocky crags to the west before leaving a tail of deposited glacial material swept to the east.

[101] With an average width of 3.2 km (2 mi) the principal objectives of the green belt were to contain the outward expansion of the city and to prevent the agglomeration of urban areas.

[101] Expansion affecting the green belt is strictly controlled but developments such as Edinburgh Airport and the Royal Highland Showground at Ingliston lie within the zone.

[101] Edinburgh includes former towns and villages that retain much of their original character as settlements in existence before they were absorbed into the expanding city of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

[102] Many areas, such as Dalry, contain residences that are multi-occupancy buildings known as tenements, although the more southern and western parts of the city have traditionally been less built-up with a greater number of detached and semi-detached villas.

The castle is perched on top of a rocky crag (the remnant of an extinct volcano) and the Royal Mile runs down the crest of a ridge from it terminating at Holyrood Palace.

In the middle of the 19th century the National Gallery of Scotland and Royal Scottish Academy Building were built on The Mound, and tunnels for the railway line between Haymarket and Waverley stations were driven through it.

For example, Church Hill in Morningside, was the home of Muriel Spark's Miss Jean Brodie,[110] and Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus lives in Marchmont and works in St Leonards.

Towns within easy reach of the city boundary include Inverkeithing, Haddington, Tranent, Prestonpans, Dalkeith, Bonnyrigg, Loanhead, Penicuik, Broxburn, Livingston and Dunfermline.

A census by the Edinburgh presbytery in 1592 recorded a population of 8,003 adults spread equally north and south of the High Street which runs along the spine of the ridge sloping down from the Castle.

[138] From the early to mid 20th century, the growth in population, together with slum clearance in the Old Town and other areas, such as Dumbiedykes, Leith, and Fountainbridge, led to the creation of new estates such as Stenhouse and Saughton, Craigmillar and Niddrie, Pilton and Muirhouse, Piershill, and Sighthill.

[163] Other Buddhist traditions are represented by groups which meet in the capital: the Community of Interbeing (followers of Thich Nhat Hanh), Rigpa, Samye Dzong, Theravadin, Pure Land and Shambala.

[195] On the night of 30 April the Beltane Fire Festival takes place on Calton Hill, involving a procession followed by scenes inspired by pagan old spring fertility celebrations.

Edinburgh is also home to The Royal Yacht Britannia, decommissioned in 1997 and now a five-star visitor attraction and evening events venue permanently berthed at Ocean Terminal.

Multrees Walk is a pedestrian shopping district, dominated by the presence of Harvey Nichols, and other names including Louis Vuitton, Mulberry and Michael Kors.

[237][238][239] The line opened in 2014 but had been cut short to 8.7 mi (14.0 km) in length, running from Edinburgh Airport To York Place in the east end of the city.

Established in 2016, the team compete in the UK wide Women's British Basketball League and play their home matches at the Oriam National Performance Centre.

1 Ladies' Detective Agency series,[277] and J. K. Rowling, author of Harry Potter, who wrote much of her first book in Edinburgh coffee shops and now lives in the Cramond area of the city.

Other names connected with the city include physicist Max Born, a principle founder of Quantum mechanics and Nobel laureate;[280] Charles Darwin, the biologist who propounded the theory of natural selection;[274] David Hume, philosopher, economist and historian;[274] James Hutton, regarded as the "Father of Geology";[274] Joseph Black, the chemist who discovered magnesium and carbon dioxide, and one of the founders of Thermodynamics;[274] pioneering medical researchers Joseph Lister and James Young Simpson;[274] chemist and discoverer of the element nitrogen Daniel Rutherford; Colin Maclaurin, mathematician and developer of the Maclaurin series,[281] and Ian Wilmut, the geneticist involved in the cloning of Dolly the sheep just outside Edinburgh, at the Roslin Institute.

[286] Notorious criminals from Edinburgh's past include Deacon Brodie, head of a trades guild and Edinburgh city councillor by day but a burglar by night, who is said to have been the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's story, the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,[287] and murderers Burke and Hare who delivered fresh corpses for dissection to the famous anatomist Robert Knox.

The small Skye Terrier reputedly kept vigil over his dead master's grave in Greyfriars Kirkyard for 14 years in the 1860s and 1870s, giving rise to a story of canine devotion which plays a part in attracting visitors to the city.

[290] In June 2024, the City of Edinburgh Council shelved plans for a friendship arrangement with Kaohsiung, Taiwan, after a report raised concerned the agreement could heighten cyber attacks.